New York City's new World Trade Center building known as the Freedom Tower has been transformed into what some are calling a "Tower of Hate" by racist rants scrawled all over bathrooms walls on its upper floors.
The insults aren't directed at just one particular group, the
New York Daily News reports.
“Most of it's racial,” a tipster told the Daily News, without revealing a name. “Most of it — I mean, there’s a lot of stuff with the N-word. But pretty much every race is covered: Spanish people, Irish people, Jewish people, women.”
Some think construction workers are responsible for the racist vandalism.
The N-word “is written all over the place, to be honest with you," the anonymous informant told the Daily News. "That’s a big deal. It’s there.”
One worker said it's difficult to enter the building and then see all the vulgar terms, despite the feeling of unity implied in the construction of "1 WTC," where more than 3,000 people of all different races and religions perished after two airplanes struck the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2011.
“This is pretty bad stuff,” said another tipster. “Some guys write things like ‘Pride’ and ‘God bless America.’ That’s 1% of what’s written. The other 99% is all negative [expletive].”
This isn't the first time there has been controversy at the construction site. In December 2011, a noose was found hanging from the 64th floor, and a Port Authority investigation later determined the noose was a hate crime.
Also in 2011, a top-ranking police officer at the World Trade Center was named in a lawsuit for allegedly using racist language and ordering a subordinate to give negative performance reviews to two black sergeants.